Billy Taylor

Billy Taylor was this articulate spokesman for jazz, and his profiles in CBS’ Sunday Morning hours tv program (where he was a normal from 1981) were therefore successful at introducing jazz to a larger audience, that occasionally you can forget just what a talented pianist he was for more than half of a century. Without an innovator, Taylor was versatile enough to try out golf swing, bop, and more complex styles while often retaining his very own musical character. After graduating from Virginia Condition University in 1942, he shifted to NY and used such major music artists as Ben Webster, Eddie South, Stuff Smith (with whom he documented in 1944), and Slam Stewart, amongst others. In 1951, he was the home pianist at Birdland and quickly afterward Taylor created his to begin many trios. He helped discovered the Jazzmobile in 1965; in 1969 he became the 1st black band movie director for any network tv series (The David Frost Display); in 1975 he gained his doctorate in the University or college of Massachusetts; and he both founded and offered as movie director for the favorite radio system Jazz Alive. But despite his actions in jazz education, Taylor was hardly ever absent from shows and recordings, keeping his bop-based design regularly swinging and new. He passed away of heart failing in NY on Dec 28, 2010, at age 89.